Luna’s Prose Ramblings

Author and Wired editor, Chris Anderson got himself in a bit a pinch when the Virginia Quarterly Review analysed his new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, for review and found that Anderson had lifted a number of passages from uncredited sources, amongst them Wikipedia.

When asked for comment on the situation, Anderson replied that the outcome was unintentional. While both he and his publisher, Hyperion, say that sources were originally credited in footnotes, it seems that when deciding against using that structure in the book and changing it to an in-line crediting lay-out, neither Anderson nor his publishers found a way to satisfy Wikipedia’s crediting policy and unintentionally omitted the references altogether.

When reading Creative Commons’s explanation of Wikipedia’s Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence, it states that it will allow others to “remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms”. The terms Wikipedia has set for the use of its article are attribution, sharing alike, if need be indication that the original work has been modified and release under identical license of the original work accompanied by a notice of such license.

This last one of course could find Anderson and his publishers in a quandary. If part of the book is adapted from material under a CC-BY-SA license, the parts or whole that contain that passage will also need to be published under the same license. If I understand the licensing agreement correctly, Anderson would be permitted to commercialise his writing, however, he would still have to publish his work under a Share-Alike license. And I doubt that he would want that. The publishers have indicated that the book will be re-edited to include all appropriate attributions, but even so, Anderson should have paraphrased the original sources or in lieu of that used quotes and block quotes. The issue whether or not Anderson committed plagiarism is difficult, but at least he practices what he preaches; Free is Free.

This to commemorate the first year anniversary of the purpose redesign of this website. Farewell!

Apparently, the days of burning have not faded into history. Earlier this year, the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries have petitioned their local library to remove a selection of books from their shelves. Among them is a book by Francesca Lia Block, Baby Be-Bop, which deals with youth homosexuality and bullying.

The citizen group requested the West Bend library to have the title removed from the children’s section and only make the book available to adults so that they would be aware of their child’s choice of reading. When the library did not immediately complied with the request, the group organised a petition to be sent. In response to this move, a second group called the West Bend Parents for Free Speech was formed to oppose the objections. Consequently, at a meeting beginning of June, the library board received two petitions, one with 700 signatories supporting the move and 1,000 opposing it. The library voted unanimously to sustain their initial decision.

But the story gets better. Once the library sustained their refusal to move certain books to the adult section, the Milwaukee branch of the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) joined the ranks of complainants by filing a suit against the library motioning to have Baby Be-Bop not moved to a different section, but to have it removed from the library completely by stating that the book is offensive. According to the suit, the book is “explicitly vulgar, racial (sic) and anti-Christian”.

But the CCLU goes further than that. Robert C. Braun, president of the Milwaukee branch, has written a fax message to the West Bent Daily News stating that “Mayor Kristine Deiss and the West Bend Library allowed a hate crime book, which offends minorities, gays and Christianity to remain in the public library, despite the fact that both prayers and God’s name have been removed from public places”. He also writes that a vigil is planned outside city hall to “pray for [the] West Bend mayor and city Library Board” and he invites interested individuals “to join us at a later date when we burn the “Baby Be-Bop” book”.

It seems the CCLU has no problem with destruction of public property.

Timmy the Tug will sail seas anew. A 40-page long poem written by poet laureate Ted Hughes for his former roommate Jim Downer, with whom he shared a house in the 1950’s, has resurfaced after Hughes’s wife Carol found it and returned it to the original recipient.

The tale tells the story of the strong tugboat that was abandoned by its captain for a cook and a cat and crates of rum. Thames and Hudson will publish the poem as a true replica of the actual work with Downer’s original artwork.

John Curran’s novel Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making, a look at how the authoress planned and developed her tales, will include two Poirot stories that were found by Curran in notebooks left in Christie’s holiday home in Devon. The stories, The Mystery of the Dog’s Ball and The Capture of Cerberus were reworked into the novel Dumb Witness and a short story collection respectively.

Curran’s Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making will be published by HarperCollins this fall.

In a spectacle reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, John David California, author of 60 Years Later Coming Through the Rye, and his publishers have been served with court orders to stop the American launch of the book after it has already become available in the United Kingdom.

California says he was inspired to write a stand-alone follow-up of Catcher in the Rye after he was entranced by the battered copy he found in an abandoned Cambodian hut. The book sees a 76-year-old Holden Caulfield escape from his nursing home and take a bus through New York all the while reminicing his adult life.

JD Salinger, the author of the original seminal work, instructed his lawyers to seek legal action against California and his publishers, Windupbird Publishing. Salinger’s lawyers, associated with both his United States’ and United Kingdom’s literary agents, have requested copies of the disputed book. According to the suit filed, the right to create a sequel or use the character of Holden Caulfield lies with The Rye’s creator and 60 Years is in no way a comment upon or parody or criticism of the original.

Fredrik Colting of Sweden-based publisher Nicotext, owner of Windupbird Publishing, says not to be worried about the suit. According to him, the action is ludricrous. 60 Years is written in similar style as The Rye, but style is not copyrightable and words and imagination belongs to everyone.

Owner and founder of Windupbird Publishing, Carl-Johan Gadd says not to be in the least bit worried. He has instructed California from the start not to include direct references and the main character is not called Holden Caulfield. He is only referred to a Mr C., which leaves no reference for Salinger’s lawyers to use.

This new segment has been brooded on for a while and I’m glad to show it the light of day now.

Ever since I started this website, I have been thinking of a way to make not only the reading list, but also the review process interesting for the visitors to read. I was milling it over one night while I was reading the Twilight Guy website (remember him ?) and I had a brainwave.

As opposed to writing a review on every book I read (…believe me you don’t want me to, there are too many), I will keep the mundane thoughts to myself and just keep you updated on what I am reading through the reading lists. Select books however, I will enter into my new segment; the Read-through review.

The Read-through review will be an on-going write-as-I-read reviewing process in which I will read a chapter and immediately post about that one chapter. Hopefully in this way, you as readers will follow me through the process. And credit where credit is due, this is the whole premise of the Twilight Guy website, only unlike him I will not restrict myself to one author and one series by that author.

Perhaps, as readers, you could pick the book up with me and see where I have different impression than you, or if you already have read the book, you might read my failing prognostications as they develop and pick up on the plot in the book that sends me amiss. Which is bound to happen often !

Anyway, I am planning to round-off any Read-through review with an interview with the corresponding author in case he or she is willing. Mostly, I will choose new or unread books by authors that I am already familiar with, so that I will have some context from previous work for the interview. But of course during the read I hope to pick up a lot of questions pertaining to the book under Read-through review to spice up the conversation.

When I start a review, I hope to post a chapter about every week running the length of the book. For longer books, I might post more often. For in the case of, say one of Ms. Meyer’s lengthy works, a chapter per week will result in one book a year. And that’s just a bit too hefty a time.

Well, the first up for Read-through…. you guessed it;
Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book !

PS. Have I plugged the Twilight Guy enough ?

The economic downturn and changing book consumerism leave some university and society presses in difficult situations.

Last April, the Minnesota Historical Society Press spoke to Publisher’s Weekly about their plans in accordance with the state’s cut on the society’s budget. The Press will discontinue four out of eleven positions within their ranks and the publishing volume will be reduced with around thirty percent. The Minnesota Historical Society Press released thirty titles last year.

But the straggling continues elsewhere. A 40-million dollar cut in funding for Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge threatens LSU Press with severe consequences. According to Ben Mann, professor of mass communication at the university, LSU press relies on an estimated two percent of the 40-million cut to stay afloat, while the press’ director Mary Katherine Callaway says that a worst-case scenario of the press not receiving any budgetary support would leave them with ‘really tough decisions’.

Michael V. Martin, chancellor of LSU Baton Rouge campus, released a written statement saying that the university’s first priority is protecting its academic core. That seems to suggest that the question for each and every university is whether it considers their press to be part of that core. Chances are that as it stands, reputation and renown are not enough of an value asset for institutions trying to mend their financial gaps and no university press should want to rely on their reputation alone for survival.

Don’t we know that technology is engrained in our society when we get the urge to back to how it used to be ?

If you ever have the urge to turn your computer into a no-nonsense, two finger operated, no editing allowed, old-fashioned typewriter, this is the freeware for you !